Man interviewed in fake Jackson cop shooting to speak out

JACKSON, Ga. -- A man who says he was interviewed as a possible suspect of shooting a police officer who actually shot herself is expected to speak out on Friday.

In September, Jackson police officer Sherry Hall claimed she was shot in the abdomen by a black man. As a result, Rodreikus Scott was questioned by the GBI.

A GBI investigation later determined Hall in fact shot herself with her department-issued firearm. Authorities said Hall lied about the incident and took her into custody.

Lawyers for Scott said he suffered harm from being falsely accused of a crime he didn't commit. They plan a 2 p.m. news conference in Decatur. 13wmaz.com will be live streaming the news conference

GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles says investigators spoke to "a handful of people" during the early stages of the Hall investigation, but none of them were charged.

She said she didn't know whether Scott was one of those interviewed.

"Like any other case, we followed leads and go where the evidence takes us," she said.

But all the evidence in the case lead investigators back to Hall, she said.

Joe Wooten, the GBI special agent in charge of the investigation, said Hall never identified Scott as the man who shot her. He said Scott was interviewed because he lived near the crime scene and fit the general description of the shooter.

Wooten said, "We interviewed him, he was very cooperative, he was never detained and no warrant was ever issued. He was totally alibied out, and we moved on from there."

This shooting came in the height of unrest around the country due to fatal police shootings of unarmed black men.

According to an Oct. 4 story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Scott said he was interviewed during the Hall investigation.

"This is not a mistake. This is a criminal. I'm confident in the investigation conducted, and I'm confident in our prosecutor Richard Milam,” Butts County Sheriff Gary Long said at the time. “I believe her next stop with be the Georgia Diagnostic Prison and she'll have a lot of time to think about what she's done.”